Usually it's the Guy
by Zerolr
Summary: The guy picks up the books, walks the girl home--you know, that kind of stuff... But Orihime really doesn't get it, does she? Ishi/Ori. sweet-fluff. COMPLETE
1. Catching Up

Hello, again. I'm just typing everything I have recently. No writing no matter how tempted I am! *laughs* I have so much work I have written up so far and I'm very eager to share it with everyone... This is my Ishi/Ori fanfic I hope you like. I usually don't write for this pairing.... Ya know, usually Ichi/Ruki fans (and I include myself in this catagory) just dump poor Orihime with Uryuu, like he's the second rate yeah-whatever-just-throw-her-with-him-cuz-he's-the-next-available-guy... which makes me kind of mad and upset (More at myself than others, really). I never really had any feelings for this couple in the begining but cause I was too obsessed with Ichi/Ruki to give two shits... (please excuse my french)

BUT!!! BUT!!!! Reading the recent manga chapters of bleach online, I've started to noticed the highly ignored Ishida Uryuu and now I love him. In spite of Ichigo's expanding circle of limelight--Tite Kubo squeezed in Ishida in the most recent scene. Uryuu's reactions and the way he says to himself "_I would immediatly regret agreeing_," it just, I just was just sucked in--I mean I've lost words for what to say. And it's just how he puts himself on the line, the guy who's the weakest of the group... I now _love_ Ishida and I can proudly say that Ishida should be with Orihime _not because_ Ichigo should be with Rukia--but because, Ishida is sweet, contemplative, conciderate, thoughtful and self-less, and Orihime's gentle nature would completment beautifully with his....

But alas... I don't know what Mr. Kubo is planning... Ishida is completely ignored in Orihime's eyes for all she sees... that's exists for her... is Ichigo....

Forgive my rant--I really just desired to express my fustrations wondering if I'm the only one who felt that way.

_I dedicate this fan-fic to all those Ishi-Ori fans out there that honestly love them as a couple and desire to read a fic that can at least make them feel better even if they don't get together in the cannon story line...._

- Zerolr -

**Disclaimer**: I do not own bleach. I just write _fan_fiction. But I am an obssesive fan of Bleach...

Paring: Ishida - Orihime

Rating: T (some suggestive stuff...)

Plot/Setting: Alternate Universe

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**Usually it's the Guy**

Chapter one

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Ishida Uryuu had a strange obsession. Yes, very strange for a very straight, very normal, very regulated, very defined young man.

He liked women's clothing. The frills, the lace, the cute bow ties, the ribbons and brooches, the embedded gems, and the delicate patterns, warm pastel colors and fabrics, cloths, and furs of all kinds, it just turned him on. Just marvelous, simply wonderful. Just waking past a clothes shop and his glasses would shine, and the knees would buckle in and turn to jelly. But he had one major problem. He had a very strict very stuck-up father. If Ryuken would ever find out what his son did in his spare time, he would disown him and consider his son a complete stranger he had never met.

Uryuu was in the middle of college studying to be a doctor. He was brilliant student who qualified for all the scholarships and was studying without having to pay a single penny out of his pocket. He owned a car, yet didn't have to get a job because his father, who directed a hospital, paid for all his expenses in order for him to study with peace in mind. He was respected because of his family status and had many friends. But his was unhappy.

He wanted to be a tailor. A fashion designer. He wanted to meet up with celebrities, design their elegant dresses for the red carpet in the award shows. Design costumes for movies and plays produce his own line of clothing, "The Quincy Fashions" that can be hailed and loved by all. To help anybody with a torn dress or old plush—or even someone who needed tips on what to buy for an event. He wanted to enter that world of lights and camera, of the catwalk and elegant models with photographers. Swallowing it all up, Uryuu just sighed as he finished stitching up a spring dress before he quietly and quite miserably stuffed it in his closet. He when back to the kitchen and pulled out his books to study for his next exam…

One day Uryuu was walking along the main street, when he saw the grand opening of a new clothing store. He stopped abruptly seeing the racks and the mannequins striking their elegant poses. He received the sudden urge to steal one, when a young woman not expecting his sudden stop bumped into his back, causing him to spill all the books he had in his hands.

"Oh, I'm sooo sorry!" wailed a sweet cutesy voice.

"No, no, it's my fault, I suddenly stopped—," when the speaker turned around, he immediately recognized the round cute face and the bubbly eyes framed by the warm chestnut colored hair.

"O-Orihime Inoue?" he gasped in surprise.

"Ishida-kun!" she sang embracing him, disregarding the fact that they were both crouched on the ground in the middle of the street. He flushed, embarrassed and feeling the pressure of her bust against his chest.

"Orihime!" he gasped at last, "Too tight!"

"Oh! Sorry!" she replied with a sheepish smile.

He quickly looked down and began to pick up his things. Usually it's the girl who drops the books, he thought with remorse.

"It's been since high school right?—How's everything since then?" she asked.

Wait her face is not that, that round. It's shaped out a little more. She looks much more like a woman, he thought. But from what I see she hasn't changed much—that's good.

"I'm in college now, and you?" he asked standing up.

"Hee-hee! I'm working in a restaurant now." She cheered.

That's when he noticed. She wore a plain regular jeans and big old white tee—what? She wore such cute clothes during the years of high school. Uryuu frowned in confusion.

"What are you studying for?" she asked as they started to walk together.

"To be a doctor."

"A doctor?!" she gasped.

"Eh? Orihime, why do you look so surprised?"

"Oh, because I always thought you were going to get into the fashion business…"

Ishida stopped walking. Everyone's reaction to me was always, 'Oh yes, a doctor—perfect you look like one,' 'Like father like son,' 'You're so smart, you are going to be a doctor right?' But Orihime, Orihime doesn't see that, she can't imagine me as a doctor?

"Oh no," he said with a nervous smile, "That was a hobby; I took up in high school."

"Oh really? How sad," she whined putting a finger to her lip, "You always put so much heart in all the projects we worked in the club, remember?"

"Hmmm, yes. How could I forget? Do you remember the class quilt?"

"Yes! Yes!" she nodded with a bright smile, "We had all the initials of every student in our class along with a pattern that symbolized them."

"You were so earnest when working on Kurosaki's patch."

She blushed furiously at that comment, "I-I did Tatsuki and Chizuro's too!"

Ishida threw back his head and laughed. His laughter was warm and rich, hearing it make Orihime feel quite strange.

"You never really confessed to him—did you?"

"Um—yes I did," she puffed, "And we when out and stuff."

"And stuff?" he questioned with a raise of a brow.

"Um," her eyes dropped in a downcast glance, "I guess you really don't know since you disappeared right after we graduated."

"What? What happened?" he asked leaning over to her side.

"Ichigo," she then cupped her mouth as tears streamed down. She panicked finding that she was tearing in spite of herself. Uryuu quickly pulled out a handkerchief and wiped her eyes. She looked up to him, "Ichigo died in a car accident two years ago," she answered in a dry whisper.

The handkerchief he held flew with the wind out of his loosened grip.

"What…did…you…say?"

"But, I know that he's okay now!" she chirped quickly losing the gloomy expression she had just a second ago, "Ishida where are you going?" she turned to him.

But he remained frozen. Her eyes soften. How stupid of me, she thought with biting regret, although he never showed it, he was very good friends with him and they both had a lot in common.

"It's not true, it, it's not…" he mumbled shaking his head."

She hugged him again, softly very gently. Uryuu placed his hands on her shoulders, "It's alright, thank you," he pushed her lightly and started to walk again.

"Where are you going?" she asked again.

"Home," he replied.

Orihime bit her lip. He looks so sad now, and it's all my fault, "Let me walk you home!" she chirped.

Usually it's the guy who walks the girl home…

"Um, sure I suppose…"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, yes" he laughed nervously, "Of course."

"Okay, Ishida-kun do you wanna hear about the time when a bum came in the restaurant thinking he was Bill Gates-san?"

"Huhhh?"

"Yeah! It was so funny! He was like....

It was so funny hearing her babble like this… and I knew that it was all to cheer me up. It had always been this way even in high school. How easy, how obvious it was to read her mind. To see through and know why she really did things… But I why she would cover up her true nature with random silliness was something that I could never understand…

**End Chapter**


	2. Two Peas in a Pod

Please forgive me if there is any misspelling or any misuse of words--I was up the wee hours of the night, I probably missed catching it. But I think I got them all... That's it, thank you.

- Zerolr -

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Chapter 2

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Ishida Uryuu got into a strange relationship. After meeting with Orihime Inoue, a classmate from high school five years later he discovered he had feelings for her and he managed to scrape up what little courage he had to ask her out. He also used whatever courage he had left from that to face his father and tell him the truth. Ryuken didn't stop his son—BUT he did take away the car, the apartment, forced him to get a job and made him pay off all of his school loans. He ended up working in the same restaurant Orihime worked in.

It turns out that his new girlfriend was stuck in a similar financial rut. Her father was an alcoholic and a gambler to boot. Her brother, Sora who was fifteen years older than her, moved out as soon as he was able to, taking the baby Inoue with him. Then he died leaving Orihime to struggle throughout high school living alone. When she finally graduated her father died passing all his outstanding debt to her name. And now she lives from paycheck to paycheck unable to enter college, and tax collectors knocking on her door and waking her up at night with their disturbing phone calls. But in spite of it all she was always smiling and THAT is what kept Uryuu going. That smile and that everlasting optimism that the next day was a new day and that anything could happen.

Three years passed living the way that they did and strangely enough, Uryuu felt happy, satisfied with his life this way. It was a very poor humble lifestyle but it allowed him the freedom to do what he really wanted. He lost a lot of friends and many people shook their heads in disgust but with Inoue by his side all of that didn't mean anything.

They lived together in the same apartment and contrary to what everyone believed (or wanted to believe) they didn't sleep in the same bed. Uryuu was so fussy and polite he felt flustered whenever she accidently undressed in front of him, or whenever she'd burst into the bathroom for a comb or brush while he bathed. She would jump up and excuse herself and sigh knowing that whenever they kissed or make out he wasn't so shy and withdrawn. He'd be obsessive and quite demanding a totally different person.

"Uh-huh, yeah he's still sleeping," Orihime whispered into the phone one morning, "Thank you for doing this," she concluded to her dear friend Tatsuki.

"No prob! It's the least I could do for that spectacular dress he made me for that reception."

"Okay he's coming in the kitchen, so I'll talk to you later okay? Bye!"

Click.

"Who was that?" he grumbled. He walked around without his glasses squinting like a blind bat.

"Nothing, and it's right here!" she sang waving them. She wore plaid skirt with fuzzy slippers that had a sunflower patch on each. She wore as a top a buttoned up short sleeve shirt decorated quite nicely.

Thanks to her boyfriend, she didn't have to worry about buying clothes for he was always making sure that she had something decent to wear. She was also well involved with clothes design putting her vivid imagination to action, coming up with styles that would boggle the mind. Under his guidance she improved her skills up to his level, and they would both spend endless hours in active conversation yelling over the hum of their machines laughing and laughing. It was a joy that Orihime clung on to with every fiber for as long as she lived.

He walked up to her after making his way around the table. He caught the smell of eggs and could make out the blurry shape of what appeared to be omelets and streaks of ketchup.

"Morning! Morning!" she cheered.

He smiled, letting a little sigh escape. Seeing his face made her heart skip a beat.

"Morning," he replied in a mumble as he kissed her. She tasted peppermint, the flavor of that he used and felt his tongue go deeper into her mouth playing with hers. He wrapped his arms around her. One of his hands played with her long hair that had grown past her waist, "I love you," he whispered after parting several minutes later. He was breathless and THAT look reflected in his deep blue eyes made her feel weak in the knees producing a sensation. The same sensation he caused her when he laughed.

If Kurosaki wouldn't have disappeared, I wouldn't have noticed you, she thought sadly. He is the type of person who fades in the background who is there but never noticed, is recognized but never appreciated. You suffer so much Uryuu, so, so much because of that.

She placed his glasses over his eyes and he smiled. She felt his hands resting on her hips. Color rose in her cheeks.

"Uh-um!" She stuttered, "If your eyes where bio-engineered nano-machines—then, then you don't have to worry about wearing glasses anymore and you can see 1,000 times more better than any human with 20 x 20 vision!

Ishida gave her a confused look and his hands moved away from where they rested.

"At-at least that's what I was thinking about yesterday after I saw the space monkey trilogy on the sci-fi channel."

"Ugh Inoue, you and your crazy imagination…" he looked at his plate and recognized the ketchup streaks a smiley faces. He poked at it with his fork wondering if she added anything unusual to the meal but seeing it was quite normal he proceeded into eating it. Orihime glowed with pride at her boyfriend. He was always the first one to try all of her strange meals and eventually getting used to them all. On the middle of the table was pile of bills which they left always until later to open.

The phone rang and Uryuu picked it up. People calling asking for orders and favors. They both had gathered quite a reputation for their work and Uryuu had a wonderful gift of pleasing every customer that came to their door.

Orihime met with Tatsuki in the afternoon before getting ready to work. Tatsuki had a dojo where she taught elementary school kids.

"Here," replied her friend passing Orihime a small box wrapped in a small bow.

"Thank you," she replied with tears in her eyes, "I'll pay the rest back I promise,"

"No, no" Tatsuki insisted, "All your years of friendship with me already did a long time ago."

They embraced and Renji shouted Tatsuki out for help because the tikes all ganged up on him and where pinning him down to the ground.

Orihime laughed and Tatsuki scoffed. She waved her friend off while she walked up to her struggling husband.

"Get off of him!" she barked.

The chestnut haired woman rushed off to get dressed for work.

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**End Chapter

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	3. Usually it's the Guy

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Chapter three

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At the restaurant Ishida stood at the corner of the kitchen greedily scratching off with a penny at a lottery ticket and groaned to find that he lost yet again.

"Ishida Uryuu! Get back to work!" barked his boss, "Yes sir!" he replied nervously. He picked up his things and walked out to the tables. He went straight to the first table he found in needed of service to only find his father looking up at him.

"Uh, ah well…" Uryuu was at a loss for words.

"Are you taking my order?" Ryuken asked completely indifferent to it all.

Meanwhile, Orihime arrived late and after getting yelled at she bounced off to get started, with the small box swimming in her front pocket of her apron.

Hours into her job, Orihime stopped Uryuu when they crossed paths in the dining room. Ryuken Ishida was getting ready to go when Orihime shouted.

"STAY HERE PLEASE!"

He stopped in his tracks, everyone out of curiosity looked up. The cooks and the other waitresses and waiters ran out to watch knowing what was going to happen. The whole restaurant that night held their breath.

"Inoue, what are you doing?" he asked embarrassed.

She sucked in a deep breath, "Uryuu you mean a lot to me," she began in a shaky voice.

Uryuu felt a drop of sweat falling down the side of his face. What the hell is she doing?!

"You're like butter that melts in the bread and you really can't see it, but makes everything taste so good! Really, you are!"

There was a general laughter and Uryuu turned several shades of red, green and purple. Ryuken stared unfazed at his son and his strange girlfriend.

"Inoue—,"

"But not everyone bothers to notice and just uses it and even abandons it to use mayonnaise instead. But I love butter Uryuu and I love you, too."

The blue-eyed man sighed in a smile in spite of himself, "And I love you too." Before he can say anything else, Orihime pulled out the small box.

"And that's why," she dropped to one knee, "I'm asking you—will you marry me?"

Everyone gasped at this American tradition done totally the wrong way. Ryu couldn't believe his eyes. His son _getting asked?!_ There was no doubt now that some how he had raised a complete sissy. He of course expected to see him flip out in embarrassment and dash off dragging the poor girl with him.

But instead Ishida Uryuu stared at her and the exposed ring in perfect silence. A sweet smile spread over his entire face and he broke out in laughter.

"How did I know this was going to happen to me!?" he said between bouts of laughter.

Orihime felt confused and didn't know how to act.

"Usually," he began while he helped her to her feet, "It's the guy who proposes to the girl," He pulled from his pocket an elegant white gold ring. Ryu immediately recognized as his late wife's ring. A ring that she left to her son as her last dying wish.

Orihime gasped.

"But, I suspected you were up to something these past two months so I held back."

"Give me your hand," she whispered and he complied, "I didn't know it was so strange."

"Of course you don't find it strange because you don't see things the way everybody else does," he cooed, "You have a gift to see people for who they really are and I love you because of it," he leaned closer to her, "You are irreplaceable—one of a kind, Inoue." As he spoke, he slipped on the ring in her finger, "Yes, I will marry you—if possible, a hundred times over in anyway you want it."

Orihime's eyes wavered and tears spilled. She saw so much love in his eyes everything in that instant was perfect. Money didn't matter or the job. The cold in the winter or the fact that they were going to face a power outage soon because of their neglect to pay the bill. All that mattered was him. That he was there and that she wasn't along anymore. That was enough to fill her world.

Ryuken closed his eyes as tears spilled down his own cheeks. The customers started clapping, and the waiters, waitresses and the cooks cheered. Their boss smiled feeling slightly bad for scolding them.

After it was all over, Uryuu and Orihime walked out of the restaurant finished with their shift and found Ryuken waiting for them outside.

"Father?" he asked seeing the relaxed expression on the usual grim face.

"If your mother was alive she would of slapped me silly for all the things I did," Ryuken replied pulling out a smoke.

"Oh, it's okay I can do that now…" Uryuu replied smartly.

Ryuken chuckled, "Uryuu you were always very hard to understand."

"So are you," he countered, "What's going on, tell me?" he asked anxiously.

"As soon as you were born, your grandfather opened an account in the bank in your name."

"Huh?" Uryuu had an idea where this was going but he was too nervous to guess.

"He kept adding to it until his death, then I kept adding to it up to this day. He paused to take a satisfying drag and he slowly blew it out.

Uryuu hung on to his every word like a dire lifeline.

"With interest, it's grown—Uryuu here, it's yours." He passed him a card that listed the account number and all the information he needed to access it, "There is over fifty-thousand dollars in it—have fun."

Uryuu and Orihime gagged as they watched him get inside his car.

"Oh and—congratulations," he replied to the silenced couple, "I expect an invitation to your wedding."

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**END**

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